Salt spreading is a common practice to maintain roads during the winter months. Over the years, private businesses have become involved in road, driveway and parking lot maintenance in the form of removing snow from such areas and spreading of salt on such areas. Private businesses typically use pick-up trucks to perform this type of service. In the past, numerous types of salt spreaders have been developed to be attached to the conventional vehicles. Typically, the spreader is mounted on the rear of the vehicle to spread particulate material, such as salt, sand, cinders, etc. onto the surface being traveled by the vehicle. One of the more common spreaders employs a hopper having a lower discharge opening through which the particulate material falls onto a rotating spreader element. Such a spreader is known as a broadcast spreader. By rotating the spreader element as material is being discharged onto the spreader element, the particulate material is centrifugally propelled by the spreader element in a wide pattern onto the ground surface. Typically, a motor is mounted on the spreader to cause the spreader element to rotate. In some instances, the spreader element is support on a motor-driven shaft which protrudes upwardly into the hopper to break up conglomerations of material and to agitate the material in the hopper for better feeding through the discharge opening.
Typical salt spreader mount assemblies used in conjunction with pick-up trucks have fastened the salt spreader to the truck's rear bumper tailgate. The usual procedure is that the spreader is secured to the truck in a fixed position by the use of bolts and brackets. Due to the relative difficulty in installing the assembly, such assemblies are left on during the spreading season and are not removed until the season ends. Another configuration available includes the use of brackets which slide over the tailgate and incorporates a frame which rests on the vehicle's bumper. The use of these two mounting assemblies restricts the access of an operator to the rear of the vehicle's cargo area via the tailgate. If the tailgate is to be opened, the spreader assembly must be disengaged from the tailgate and the hopper emptied prior to removal. Such a disassembly requires considerable time and labor merely to gain access to the cargo bay of the vehicle. In typical operations, the particulate material is loaded and stored in the cargo bay prior to being loaded into the hopper. However, due to the complexity of removing the assembly from the tailgate so that the tailgate can be opened and the cargo bay can be accessed through the tailgate, the tailgate is typically not used to access the cargo bay once the spreader assembly is attached to the tailgate. As a result, access to the cargo bay of the vehicle is limited and if access is desired, it must be over the side wall of the vehicle. This limited access increases the difficulty of loading particulate material and other objects into the cargo bay of the vehicle and to gain access to the particulate material for loading into the hopper. Typically, the spreader material, such as bags of road salt and/or cinder ash, must be lifted over the side walls of the cargo bed thus resulting in additional labor times for loading such cargo into the cargo bay and damages to the side walls of the vehicle.
A salt spreader mounting assembly disclosed in U.S. Letters Pat. No. 5,375,773 overcomes several of the problems associated with accessing the cargo bed via the tailgate when a spreader assembly is attached to the vehicle. The spreader mounting assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,773 includes a frame which attaches to the vehicle and includes pivoting connections between the frame of the vehicle so that the frame can be swung horizontally thereby permitted access to the tailgate of vehicle. Once the assembly is swung away from the tailgate of the vehicle, the tailgate may be opened, thereby allowing access to the rear cargo area of the vehicle via the tailgate. Although the spreader mounting assembly is an improvement over many of the prior spreader mounting assemblies, there are several disadvantages associated with such mounting assembly. Once such disadvantage is that the frame which supports the hopper and spreader must be fully swung from the tailgate so as to allow the tailgate to be opened. As a result, the vehicle must be positioned in an area so as to provide enough space to fully swing the frame away from the tailgate so that the tailgate may be opened. Another disadvantage with respect to this mounting assembly is that the frame components must be made of heavy gauged steel to support a hopper filled with particulate material as it is being swung from the tailgate of the vehicle. The heavier materials which must be used for the construction of the frame result in additional costs and difficulty in moving the frame by an operator. A further disadvantage is that once the frame is swung away from the tailgate, the hopper is out of position to allow for easy loading of the particulate material into the hopper. While the tailgate is open, the frame cannot be swung back to its closed position since the end of the tailgate would engage the hopper and/or rotating spreading element and thereby damage such component. Another disadvantage is that the mounting bracket for the mounting assembly must be bolted to the top of the side wall of the vehicle. As a result, bolt holes must be drilled into the top of each of the side walls to secure the bracket to the top of the side walls. The resulting holes permanently disfigure the vehicle and can result in rusting of the vehicle around the drilled bolt holes. A further disadvantage of the spreading mounting assembly is that the outer surface of the tailgate can be damaged if the tailgate is not properly closed prior to the frame being closed and secured to the rear of the vehicle. Another disadvantage is that the spreader assembly is not easily adaptable to a variety of differing width cargo beds, thereby limiting the utility of such mounting assembly to specific sized trucks.
In view of the deficiencies of the present spread mounting assemblies, there is a need for a salt spreader mounting assembly that will allow easy access to the rear of the vehicle's cargo area, provides for easy loading of the spreader hopper from the cargo bay of the vehicle, minimizes permanent damage to the vehicle and can be used in a wide variety of trucks.